Monday, August 26, 2013

Bound by a Baby - Kate Hardy (HR #4391 - Sept 2013)

Can a baby bring them together?

Becoming guardian to her orphaned godson is a heartbreaking honor for
Emmy Jacobs. The real challenge will be sharing that honor with
godfather Dylan Harper! Having got off on the wrong foot with him, Emmy
must now somehow get along with the brooding -- and gorgeous -- Dylan….

Dylan has never wanted a family. His own childhood was bad enough, so
how can he ever be a father? But he promised his best friend he'd be
there and he's going to be. Caring for baby Tyler with a beautiful but
emotional woman will test him to the limit. However, watching Emmy with
Tyler shows Dylan a new side to her -- and a new side to himself….

Sweet book. Emmy and Dylan have been named co-guardians for their godson Tyler. They were good friends with Tyler's parents, just not with each other - more like total opposites. Emmy is emotional and creative and open-hearted. Dylan is a workaholic who thanks to a bad childhood has never wanted a family of his own. She thinks he's an uptight grouch and he thinks she's a flake, so how are they ever going to be able to raise Tyler together?

I really liked both Emmy and Dylan. In spite of their feelings toward each other they were willing to do whatever was best for Tyler. Emmy is a talented jewelry designer who tends to see the good things in life. Unfortunately she also has really bad luck in relationships so has pretty much written off getting involved with anyone until Tyler is grown. As she and Dylan settle in to their new lives she discovers that he's not as bad as she had thought. She sees his willingness to learn how to care for Tyler and also that he's more open to compromise. It isn't long until she is also noticing his good looks and that there's a buzz of attraction whenever she's around him. I really liked the slow growth from adversaries to friends to more. It wasn't a flash bang attraction but very real development that dealt with their different personalities and the problems that occasionally came up. Even with their growing feelings Emmy still had some issues left over from her previous relationships that nearly derailed their future, but talking it out solved the problem. One of the things I really liked about her was her happy outlook on things. Besides the playing with Tyler that she did, I loved the way she looked at the world around her. Seeing the butterfly gardens and the seaside through her eyes was great.

Dylan was a darker personality. He hadn't had a happy childhood, with no father and a mother who was constantly trying to "find herself". It also made him sure that he never wanted to have children because he would have no idea how to care properly for them. This caused the end of his marriage, which only reinforced his feelings. In spite of that he was willing to do his best for Tyler. I really liked the way that he had no trouble asking Emmy to teach him what he needed to know. I also liked the was that he realized that he had misjudged her by comparing her to his mother. He fought his attraction to her because he didn't want it to impact their care of Tyler, but more and more he saw the ways he had changed and thought that a future could be possible. I thought that his "lunch date" with Emmy was just the sweetest thing and more romantic than I had expected from him. I loved the way he went after her at the end.

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About Me

My name is Susan and I live in Ostfildern, Germany. I have 2 children: Alan, 32 and Beth, 30, and one granddaughter, Evie. My husband and I have been married for 34 years. I worked part-time at Borders Books, which is a dangerous place for a bookaholic to work. It may explain why I have more than 400 books on my TBR bookshelf....
I started reading romance when I was around 12 or 13. I was babysitting for a neighbor who gave me free run of her bookshelves. Most of them were Harlequin Romances. I started out on authors like Margaret Way and Violet Winspear. I also read alot of Barbara Cartland. As I got older I added authors like Bertrice Small and Nora Roberts.
Several years ago I gave the first of Nora Roberts' Three Sisters trilogy to my daughter, as I thought she would enjoy it. Now she is as voracious a romance reader as I am. She is frequently asked "Does your mom know you read that stuff?" to which she replies "Who do you think got me started?!"
I learned awhile ago that I needed to keep track of what I've read and purchased. I now use a program called BookCat to track my books. I also list my books on Goodreads, LibraryThing, and FictionDB.